Sport

Factory collapse victims yet to see any compensation

Updated
October 25, 2013 08:16:00

When the Rana Plaza Complex collapsed in Dhaka six months ago, killing more than 1000 people, many of the Western companies for whom the factory produced clothes pledged to provide compensation. Most of the victims say they've yet to receive anything.

TONY EASTLEY: Most of the victims of the clothing factory collapse in Bangladesh earlier this year say they're yet to receive any promised compensation from the Western companies that used the facility.

More than 1000 people died when the Rana Plaza Complex in Dhaka collapsed six months ago.

The factory complex produced clothes for a range of western companies - most of them pledged to compensate the victims and their families.

South Asia correspondent Michael Edwards reports.

MICHAEL EDWARDS: More than 3,000 people were working inside the Rana Plaza Complex when it collapsed. Many escaped but more than 1,000 were trapped inside. Very few of them survived.

But Reshma Begum defied the odds. After two weeks trapped under the rubble she was found alive. She's told the BBC that six months later she's moved on with her life but that she still lives with the trauma of her ordeal.

RESHMA BEGUM (translated): A lot has changed. I have a better life. I'm learning English here and computers. My mother has suffered a lot. Now that I have a good job, as a daughter I want to look after her. Sometimes even now in my sleep I have nightmares that I'm trapped in the rubble.

MICHAEL EDWARDS: But Reshma Begum is still angry about the conditions hundreds of thousands of people still face within the country's textiles industry. She says little has been done to either improve the lives of those still working or to help those affected by the Rana Plaza collapse.

RESHMA BEGUM (translated): Their salaries should be increased. Whatever is needed to make their life safer must be done. They work very hard and suffer a lot.

These clothes are bought by foreign buyers. I would ask them to give the compensation they have promised.

MICHAEL EDWARDS: Surveys conducted by two NGOs, Action Aid and War on Want, have discovered that almost 95 per cent of the people who were promised compensation by Western companies have not been paid.

Murray Worthy is from War on Want.

MURRAY WORTHY: The vast majority of people if not nearly all have received very little if anything in terms of compensation for the worst industrial disaster in the garment industry in recent years and we think that's completely unacceptable.

The companies that sourced from that factory have a responsibility to make sure that those factories are safe. They failed to do so and they now need to make sure that the people who are affected are fully compensation.

MICHAEL EDWARDS: One company, the British retailer Primark, has paid compensation to the victims but many others haven't. Walmart and Benetton are among the large companies that produced clothes in the complex.

The disaster caused outrage in the West, with many questioning the ethics of multinational companies using unsafe factories to make their products. Murray Worthy says the controversy has led to improvements but that there is a long way to go.

MURRAY WORTHY: There was a huge outpouring of public anger after that that saw a million people around the world sign petitions calling on various companies to change. And since then a hundred companies have now signed up to a binding agreement to work to make factories safer so we have seen some improvements.

But realistically we're still seeing a lot of the same kind of attitudes from companies that they think that they can avoid responsibility for these factories, that it's not really their duty to make sure the workers who make their clothes are safe. So I think there's still a huge way to go to change the culture in the industry to make sure these kind of things never happen again.

MICHAEL EDWARDS: Textiles are Bangladesh's largest export. The government has cracked down on unsafe workplaces but deadly accidents still take place. Earlier this month at least 10 people died in a fire that engulfed a factory, one that produced clothes for Australian companies.